Nielsen’s Nook

Whether your voting for Barack Obama or not, the fact that America is at a place where she can nominate a Black man for presidential candidacy seems to indicate the sort of progress by which all Americans can be encouraged.

“What you see happening here tonight is the down payment of the fulfillment of dream of Martin Luther King,” he said. “Just a few short years ago in Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, many people of color could not even register to vote and now, these people are voting for an African-American.”

“It was an amazing moment — not for African-Americans — for Americans,” CNN contributor Roland Martin said.

Read the full article at CNN.

WASHINGTON (CNN) — The Bush administration has launched a “significant escalation” of covert operations in Iran, sending U.S. commandos to spy on the country’s nuclear facilities and undermine the Islamic republic’s government, journalist Seymour Hersh said Sunday. … [It is reported that] Congress has authorized up to $400 million to fund the secret campaign, …

President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney have rejected findings from U.S. intelligence agencies that Iran has halted a clandestine effort to build a nuclear bomb and “do not want to leave Iran in place with a nuclear program,” Hersh said.

“They believe that their mission is to make sure that before they get out of office next year, either Iran is attacked or it stops its weapons program,” Hersh said.

… [read the whole article on CNN]

Do we really need a third front in the Middle East? Is it wise to start a war which one’s administration will not be able to oversee? How will we afford a three-front war when can’t afford the two-front one? I’m ready for a different theme, myself.

On the one hand, it is good to see so many people so concerned and thoughtful about the 2008 Election. The desire for strong leadership, for a person and administration that can keep one safe and provide an environment in which a person and their family might indeed thrive is a good and natural desire. But how long will it last? How much can one President in our political expression or a king or Prime Minister in others actually do?

I am reminded of our cosmic need for beneficent rule from Colossians 2:15 this morning. In particular, as our own political process in America continues to be reduced to cesspools of slander. This process serves to tickle our curiosity but not answer the questions, many times, that a citizen needs answered in order to vote well. The political fight employs the weapons that only insure more wounding and political blood-letting continue.

Perhaps, the weapons of warfare, political or otherwise, are all wrong for us, for politicians and for the citizens that elect them. “Having stripped-off the rulers and authorities, He disgraced them openly, having led them as triumphal captives through [the Cross],” Lawrence Farley translates Colossians 2:15.

Most politicians want to sincerely change the world, or at least their world. However, with all the rhetoric about change this term, I wonder about the substantive mechanism to get us there. We elect those who conquer best with the weapons that we think are mighty. The Cross would remind us that might is fleeting and can turn upon its wielder: the sword cuts both ways. The Cross for Christians is in fact the place that we find not only salvation from what would swallow us whole, but the way forward in all spheres of life. Indeed, the Cross is “the invincible trophy, the weapon of peace” as Farley reminds us in the kontakion of the Feast of the Elevation of the Cross.

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¹ Farley, Lawrence. The Prison Epistles, The Orthodox Bible Study Companion Series. (Ben Lomond, Calif.: Conciliar Press, 2003) , p. 174-5.

I was overwhelmed last weekend at the quite sensational(ized) AP news story of J. K. Rowling’s statement that she “always thought of Dumbledore as gay.” As one who has loved reading the Harry Potter books, I wasn’t sure what to make of it. When I read the CNN version of the story the line that seemed to have such a vicious barb was:

Not everyone likes her work, Rowling said, likely referring to Christian groups that have alleged the books promote witchcraft. Her news about Dumbledore, she said, will give them one more reason.

As far as promoting witchcraft, I would think one would be hard pressed to make such a claim of the Potter series. To do so would seem to require one to dismiss Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings and C. S. Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia with all of its “deep magic” and “magic deeper still.” And, of course, the real question is not the magic of fantasy and fiction but the politics of adding the sexuality to magic. I was not sure what to make of the CNN article. There were myriad feelings and thoughts. I was glad to find out the discussion was not happening with a thousand twelve year-olds or something like that (something the CNN article seemed happy to let one assume).

A colleague of mine pointed me to a piece by John Granger over at HogwartsProfessor.com. Granger has written at least four books on the Potter series. His article is written thoughtfully, with access to primary source material (i.e., Dr. Amy Sturgis, who was at Carnegie Hall and heard J. K. Rowling speak for herself. The assessment, being from a Christian perspective, is worth the read. The following are some summary points taken from the conclusion of the piece:

(1) The meaning of Ms. Rowling’s words are best understood in the contexts of her “connection” that night with the 19 year old woman who asked the question and of the dynamics of the crowd at this Open Book Tour event;

(2) The media presentation of the event as Ms. Rowling’s endorsement of homosexuality and an anti-faith agenda was straight from Rita Skeeter’s notebook and part of their endless campaign to convince the public that Ms. Rowling is the enemy of their enemy, namely, the Church;

(3) The anguished and disappointed response of many Christian readers to these reports was also according to Culture War formula and in keeping with a hyperextended understanding of the word “gay;”

(4) “Dumbledore is gay” no more makes the books an invitation to homosexuality or contrary to orthodox Christian belief than “Sorcerer’s Stone” made them a “gateway to the occult;” and

(5) If you want to understand the ten qualities of postmodern story telling and how Ms. Rowling weaves her engaging stories using all ten, you need to read the Postmodernism chapters of Unlocking Harry Potter: Five Keys for the Serious Reader. (I’d blush about the shameless plug except it’s the only thing I know in print or online that covers this subject.)

I have to share this with you. It is absolutely hilarious.